Time
by Strawberry Finch
Summary: We only have so much time in life. How will we spend it? Inuyasha and Kagome face this question as they try to make sense of their histories, personalities, their, country, and their world which is quietly coming to an end. InuKag MirSan


Disclaimer: I do not, never have, and never intend to imply that I have created these characters on my own – they are the creations of Rumiko Takahashi in her manga and anime Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale. I have only created a new universe for them to run around and break things in, hopefully not themselves.

When I write %Inuyasha% or %Kagome% it means I am changing to their point of view

This story is about what time we have and how we use it

Hope you all enjoy

Time

Chapter 1

Kagome Higurashi was not sure what to expect as she walked into her office, the room adorned by curvaceous furniture with deep cushioning, its walls painted earthy tones, and windowed sparingly by unframed paintings. She stood in the doorway for a moment, considering the day, its importance, or rather the importance of her first _partner_. He wasn't just anybody: some businessman who had fallen on hard times and needed someone to help, or a housewife needing to learn how to see the world in a different way. This was the future leader of the country_._

Kagome slowly walked over to the panes of glass separating her from the rest of the world outside and turned a small crank to rotate the blinds open. The bleaching light of the morning fell into the room. Should she open them all the way or just leave them as they were? '_No_,' She decided. '_Too much light will be harsh on his eyes, and things going on outside will be distracting… though that may be what he needs_ _to be comfortable…_

_ 'No, make a plan and stick to it.'_ She thought to herself, tensing her fist for a moment. She checked the clock: five minutes until his entourage arrived, if they were running on time. _'Hard to judge these days…' _she thought to herself.

Kagome walked over to her desk situated on the far wall from the windows. It would be a waste of time to review the informational sachet about him on her computer as she had already memorized it after reading it over and over again:

Partner Name: Inuyasha no Inugami Taisho ya Bakufu, Great Prince of the Altaic Kingdom and First General-Representative of the Two Koreas, Manchuria, Sakhalin, and Birobidzhan.

Referral Status: Family Intervention.

Citing: Familial trouble and "bad attitude", low motivation, fighting, inappropriate social behavior, and possible aggravated murder.

Requested Goals: Change attitude, improve sociability, increase productivity.

Special Requests: Second Tier Confidentiality, Imposed On Agreement

Physical Statistics: Age - 23

Family Situation - Both parents deceased, elder brother is head of household. Lives with several nieces and nephews.

Nation Status – Japanese Descent, Half-Youkai/Hanyou

What was she to make of all that? Usually with partners there was at least some record for her to choose her approach for therapy. This time all she had to go off of was what she and everyone else in the country knew about the royal family: The previous king, his brothers and sisters and several top General-Representatives died in coordinated plane bombing attacks back in 2190. His second wife, a human, was Empress of the Lands for 23 hours before being deposed of by the king's first wife ('_one more reason to just marry one woman…'_ Kagome growled in her mind), who sentenced former Empress Izayoi and the young second prince into exile in Cascadia. There was a coup d'état a few years later by the Republic's Adviser Myoga, and the former Empress and her son were allowed back into the country. Empress Izayoi died not long after under shady circumstances, and Myoga declared the Altaic Kingdom a Republic and removed most of the royal family from their major posts except for the few highest in the pecking order.

That was pretty much it. The second prince had his Societal Introduction a few years ago when he was eighteen and had the obligatory screaming fan-girl base for a while until it turned out he wasn't as ostentatious as his older brother. Nothing else was really known about him; nothing official anyway. There were a few rumors that there was infighting amongst the royals, each trying to position themselves close to Myoga to get the coveted title of General-Representative of Honshu, but Kagome thought that was a stupid rumor. After all, President Myoga was youkai - - he would not be dying any time soon, so no one other than him was going to be the General Representative of Honshu for very long time. Furthermore, Myoga's popularity ratings were through the roof, so the other G.R.'s [General-Representatives] would have no legal base to challenge his rule.

There was a knock at the door. Kagome started and knocked her pencil holder over. She rushed around to the front of her desk to gather all the writing things up when she heard Rin's voice peeping through her door. "Dr. Higurashi, there are some men up front to see you… They look pretty official, did you do something stupid?"

Continuing to stuff writing implements back into the container Kagome replied stiffly. "No, Rin, I'll be out in a minute, just a paranoid client - ehh, I mean partner."

Rin scrunched her eyebrows and lips dubiously. "You know, for a psychologist you don't lie very well. What's going on?"

"Confidentiality, Rin, it really is just an abnormal case. And if I wanted to be a liar I would have been an actor."

"Or politician," Rin replied with a high-pitched giggle. "Well hurry up, they seem impatient. Also work on the prickly attitude, you're all weird and edgy."

Kagome stood back up and put the pencils on the desk, collecting herself for a moment. She whipped her head around and dropped her shoulders to hold an air guitar. "Oh yeeaaah, maaan," she said in the lowest voice she could. "I'm like _toooootally_ edgy and stuff."

Rin chuckled. "What were you saying about not being an actor?"

"That being a starving artist wasn't my style; that's why I got a Doctor's License. Now hush up and back to your post."

"Yes ma'am." And without another word Rin closed the door. Kagome listened to her assistant's footsteps going down the carpeted hallway, the light laughing attitude Kagome needed travelling with her. Kagome wrang her hands together a few moments, looking over her office. The loveseats were fuzz free, blankets still perfectly arranged, small coffee table lacking any dust: she couldn't bide time by cleaning the place up. This was the moment, perhaps the most important _partner_ of her life.

There was a small mirror on the wall near the door, directly facing Kagome. She noticed herself frowning. She took a deep breath with closed eyes. '_No, this is not the most important anything. He is just another person, just like me. We may have our differences, but he was still a little kid once, just like I was, and we can work together to make things better._'

She opened her eyes. The frown was gone, but there was no smile either. She sighed, shrugged, and let down her hair from the bun she stupidly thought was appropriate when getting ready early this morning - - it had been messed up by her guitar performance anyway. Her hair bloomed out and draped around her neck to her shoulders, still smelling pleasantly like her shampoo. She walked to the door, went down the hall, and opened the door to the reception area.

Two burly men stood in front of one of the waiting chairs, guarding a thinner man with long, black hair and a baseball cap, reading a magazine appropriately to hide his face. _He's not very adept at this incognito thing is he…? Lucky no one else is in here right now._

"Excuse me?" Kagome said, tilting her head to look over the top of the magazine. Two amber eyes snapped to hers. She felt a stab of fear behind her heart, but she pushed past it. "Yes, we're ready. Mind coming ba-"

Before she could finish her sentence all three men were up and out of the room heading down the hallway behind her; her hair fluttered in their wind the second after she realized something happened. Kagome looked towards the frosted glass receptacle where Rin sat, equally amazed. From behind her desk she mouthed "DEMONS", gave a small shrug of the shoulders, and returned to whatever she had been doing on the computer.

If Kagome had been wearing a suit she would have straightened it in her huff, but as she was wearing a dress she wrang her hands together for a moment before making a huff anyway, turned on her heel and stalked back to her office. _'Rude little boys...'_ She muttered in her mind.

The two extra men popped out of the doorway the moment prior to her putting her foot through it; Kagome jumped back and banged against the hall wall.

One of the men, with a long, high ponytail and sunglasses, smirked. "Scared, are we Ms. Psychologist?"

"Startled, yes," She bit back heaving. "I'm not used to people running light speed around here."

The man chuckled in a husky way until the other one hit him meekly on the arm. He cleared his throat and the smirk was gone. "We will need to protect his majesty at all times, you understand?"

"That is in your protocol I believe…" Kagome replied unsure as to what the man meant. A second later the meaning hit her. "…But I should think that you wouldn't have to protect him while during our session? Please just wait in the reception area."

The smirk was back. "No can do, gorgeous. Captain's orders."

'_He's trying to flirt with me? This is interesting.'_ "Captain's orders or not, this is my office, and here my rules go. Tell your captain you did protect him by respecting the doctor's request and staying in the lobby."

Bigger smirk now. The man just shook his head slowly.

"What do you have to be afraid of anyway? That I'm going to try to shoot him or something? He's youkai: no damage done."

The two men smiled in a menacing way at the term _youkai_. "He's _hanyou_, Ms. Higurashi, not Youkai. And in _our country_, _our_ rules go."

Kagome was about to act on her agitation when a dry voice from inside her office came out instead. "Go to the lobby: If she wanted to try something we would have found it in the sweep, and besides I'm ten times as strong and twenty times as fast as her. The only thing you'd be protecting'd be your egos."

The two men seemed to lose some of the puff in their chests. "But your majesty-"

"Go."

The two men visibly controlled a sigh and slunk their shoulders: They really must have wanted to know the insides of the Prince's mind. ' _Or someone else asked them to find out_…' Kagome wondered. The two men moved out of the way towards the lobby, first the quiet one and the smirker second, but not before lowering his shades to give her a wink. She rolled her eyes and barely restrained herself from slamming the door of her office.

Inuyasha sat seemingly unperturbed on the sofa, arms splayed out on top of the cushions, the morning sun backlighting him as best it could through the vertical blinds. "So are we going to get this going now or what? I have a lot of other doctors to see today." He said in a soft, gravelly voice.

"What do you mean?" Kagome asked, walking over to the armchair next to the couch so he would have to turn his head to look at her. "By the lots of other doctors…?"

"You're useless to me and to them," He replied. His head didn't turn but his eyes looked into hers. While his irises were the royal amber, they weren't beautiful, at least not in that moment. Behind his eyes she saw candlelight so faint that a single breath could snuff it out. For a moment she wished she wasn't so accustomed to seeing that look.

"They'll keep sending me around to whoever they want so they don't have to deal with me. I don't like being jerked around, so I refuse to comply. You'll try for a while and then decide you can't help me and I'll go on to someone else."

Kagome pursed her lips and sat back in her chair, staring at the far wall. '_Pretty open mouthed for a royal…_' "So they don't really care about your wellbeing at all then?"

He gave a harsh buck of a laugh. "Are you serious? We're royalty in the strongest country in the world - - no-one likes or cares about each other."

"I find that unlikely." Kagome replied.

"No, really lady, they're all just out there to get a better place in the pecking order. It just doesn't matter at all."

"They?" She asked, still staring at the far wall. "You mean the royal family, right?"

He sighed haughtily. "Yes, of course that's who I mean."

She turned to look at him. "You're royal too. Does that mean you are only interested in getting a better position in the 'pecking order' as you called it?"

Inuyasha blinked and held back for moment, clearly expecting her to have asked a question different than that one. It made her smirk a little on the inside.

"I'm not one of them." He eventually said. "I don't count, I'm just watching them burn is all."

"But you are a royal, and if THEY are the royals, and if THEY can't feel or do anything kind for anyone but themselves, then that means you are just as callous and ambitious."

"No it doesn't." He said as quiet as a growl. "I told you I'm not one of them, I don't count."

"Why?" Kagome asked. She reminded herself to be careful with her tone.

"Oh come on, I'm hanyou!" Inuyasha shot back incredulously. "Half-demon, half-human. Only a demon can rule the House of the Western Dog."

"I don't remember reading that in the Royal Charter of Ascension."

"It's an unwritten rule."

"Since when did unwritten rules carry any real worth?"

"The ones who killed my mother seemed to think it was valid." He bit back.

Kagome held her breath for a moment. The air was charged with static as she studied his face. He was clearly angry with her, but a moment longer looking into his eyes showed that Inuyasha wasn't glaring _at_ her but _through _her. He was angry that she was in essence invalidating his mother's death, but he was angrier at the injustice of the manner of her death. She released her breath with wisdom.

"Do you think that rule is valid?"

Inuyasha's eyes grew wide and stuttered in their blinks for a moment. "What…? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Honestly it's just a question." Kagome replied, glad her diversionary technique worked. "I'd like to know if you think it is right that only Demons get to rule the country. President Myoga seems to disagree."

Inuyasha stared at Kagome for moment. One bar of light crossed his face, the rest was hidden in the shadow of the blinds, as if she were looking at him through the bars of a prison. He turned away from her and sat back into the couch, arms at his sides. "…Demons are stronger than humans, and can live longer than anything else in the world. Its natural that they should get to rule over everything else…"

"There's a difference between something being an observation of 'natural order' of things, "Kagome began. "…And something being your personal opinion. I'm interested in that second one, not the first."

Inuyasha was silent for a moment. "…you're more direct about this than the others."

"I don't like to waste my client's time - - _PARTNER'S! _Partner's time, sorry for the slip of the mouth."

Inuyasha smirked without brevity. "You're still having trouble changing how you refer to the crazy people?"

Kagome raised an eyebrow in annoyance. "As far as I'm concerned there is not such thing as a crazy person. We have mistakes in our upbringing, and sometimes problematic DNA, that forces us to act in ways that are detrimental to ourselves and others. A lot of those things are outside of our control, and others are within our realm of control but we haven't been taught how to change them. So we make mistakes. There are tragic genetic dispositions and people lacking full understanding and practice - - no one is really crazy."

"You keep using the word 'we'. Imagining yourself to be a 16th century European monarch?"

Kagome's annoyed face lingered. "I'm referring to all of humanity."

Inuyasha smirked and slid his arms behind his head. "We're not in the same species, lady. Those rules don't apply to me or demons."

"Since when were blood differentiations and ties the only thing that mattered?"

"Since forever!" Inuyasha laughed back. "Humans eat other animals and don't give a crap about their wellbeing. Demons rule humans in the A Kingdom and that's all that matters."

"That doesn't answer my question" Kagome retorted. "Why are small differences in genetics and in blood so important?"

"Because… ugh, I don't want to answer that question." Inuyasha rolled his eyes to the corner of the room.

"Humans have gotten over most of those issues over the last 200 years, and demons and humans are remarkably similar in physicality, and psychologically they are exactly the same. You're telling me that has no importance at all?"

"Keh, yeah, sure, if you want to believe all that bull shit those doctors come out with. Its just a bunch of stuffing for their agenda."

Kagome pointed to a stack of books on a bookshelf. "Those twenty-eight books are the summarized studies of the psychological parallelness of humans and demons. And what 'agenda' of mine are you talking about?"

Inuyasha turned his gaze back to her, stony but focused. He remained quiet.

"Why are you making that face?" Kagome asked with a quick tilt of her head.

"What's it to you?"

"Staring at someone doesn't tend to happen for no reason."

"Fine, I'm analyzing you."

"Isn't that my job?"

"Funny."

"C'mon, this 'agenda' thing, what do you mean by that?" Kagome pressed on.

Inuyasha sighed with a smile and let his eyes drift shut. "Aren't you supposed to be asking me about my feelings? About why I'm such a wreck, about what's _really_ going on in the royal palaces? Y'know, being all quiet and calming and shit?"

Kagome smiled. "Aren't you supposed to be dressed in traditional kimono, refuse to speak with commoners, and be carried from one place to another in carriage and fanfare?"

"Now you aren't answering my question." Inuyasha replied.

"Now you know what it's like to have your honest curiosity denied." Kagome replied. "Knowing what someone else is going through and feeling it yourself is the center-piece of empathy."

Inuyasha flicked his eyebrow for a moment before crossing his arms and sinking into his seat, staring at the distant wall sourly again. Kagome watched his face for a few moments before relaxing back into her chair, having seen dusty gears receive long over due oiling in the young man's mind. She knew she wasn't going to get an answer to what agenda she apparently had, just as she knew she wasn't going to get an answer from him about what really makes blood differences so important. Just letting things was a large part of psychological therapy especially early in her style of treatment: It kept the conversation going and let the partner know subconsciously that she wasn't the one directing the conversation, he was. Kagome knew how important having some degree of control in someone's life was, and allowing non-linear discussion was the best gift she could give to anyone who walked into her office on the first day.

Distant car honks and the silken rumble of the high-speed monorail drifted into the room through the closed windows. Kagome watched the wall clock as the minutes ticked by: first three, then five, then eight, then thirteen. He was breathing deeply for the entire period. Eventually he said, "This is stupid."

Kagome raised her eyebrows but did nothing else. A few moments passed before his eyes flitted to hers, looking for judgment in his statement. She didn't know what he thought was stupid, but that didn't matter to her. What mattered was that he felt something and was trying to express it. So she shrugged. "If that's what you feel that's what you feel. But is that really what you feel or just the easier answer?"

"Easier answer than what?"

"Than a clearly articulated expression of what you are thinking or feeling, so close to the reality of your mind and heart that it is terrifying to even contemplate putting it to words." Kagome replied slowly. "It's scary to admit who we are and what we feel, especially when-"

"There's that 'we' word again."

"I keep using 'we' because what I'm talking about affects everyone, you and me and all other people, human and demon and anything in-between. There are a lot of things that make us different but there are a lot of things that make us similar too."

"Don't preach at me."

Kagome raised an eyebrow and bit her tongue until she could trust it not to lash out. "What makes it look like I'm preaching?"

"'Cause you're saying something is a matter of fact when it isn't. Its just your opinion that you are trying to force on me. No one is affected by anything the same way."

"But opinions are based in something, real events or otherwise. Are there no events in your life that make my opinion valid?"

"Nope. Not one. How's that make you feel Ms. Psychologist?" He replied instantly, smacking of bitterness.

Kagome looked down at the ground and let her frustration out like the steam of boiling water being poured into a mug. "It makes me feel annoyed, because I don't think you believe what you're saying. You responded so fast to my question it makes me think that it's a question you've heard before, and the people who stated it turned out to be hypocrites. To preserve your sense of worth and identity you took on a worldview of moral superiority, where some people are better than others because they don't lie about the world, they 'call it how it is.'

"But that mindset itself is flawed because it puts you above everyone else for no other reason than 'everyone else is a hypocrite'. But you are still just as much a flawed person as anyone else. You can make the moral error of preaching too, and you have this entire session, like when you've told me, 'You're useless to me and to them' or when you implied that everyone who comes to see me for help is a crazy person." Kagome replied.

His eyes were wide, jaw weak, arms lax and in his lap. In that moment Kagome saw something fiery awaken behind his eyes. He looked down for a moment, then back at her. She saw that she said something he knew was real, but something about that scared him, and he was going to try to dismiss her so he didn't have to feel scared anymore.

"Don't hide from me." Kagome interjected before he could finish making his scoff. "I think… I think you think I'm right… I think you believe that the members of the royal family shouldn't treat you like garbage just because you're hanyou; That's not a reason to treat people differently, it's an excuse to get away with it."

Inuyasha's lips fidgeted for a moment before he shoved his arms across his chest. "Aren't reasons and excuses the same thing?"

'_He's asking questions- yes! There's hope for you yet Inuyasha!'_ She whooped in her head. "Not really. A reason explains how and why X affects Y. An excuse is when someone tries to say that they didn't affect anything, that there is no reason for them to feel guilt. In that case X affected Y but doesn't want to acknowledge that so it tries to make it look like it was Z that really did it."

Inuyasha was silent again for a while. His eyes stayed towards the ground except for one moment, and in that moment she saw the eyes of her younger brother when Kagome found him getting beaten up by bullies. It was unexpected deliverance.

Then he looked down again. "You're pretty smart for a woman," he said.

She dead-panned. "Well… you never know where… how… someone will surprise you." She said through clenched teeth. 'So much for that hope_.'_

Inuyasha's eyes glanced at the wall clock. "Looks like my time in prison is up."

"So it seems," Kagome replied. She rose to her feet and patted out the odd creases in her skirt, then opening up her hand towards the door. "If you'd like to do this again sometime you can talk to Rin up front."

Inuyasha smirked and let his eyes close as he stood up. Without opening his eyes he walked straight past Kagome and opened and shut the door to her office. She watched him go and stood there as a few paper from her desk glided through the air, disturbed by his hasty departure. And after that moment she glared at the door and whispered, "…prick… Just get all combative and sexist and…ooohhh!…"

She paced in a small circle, fuming in gibberish.

%Inuyasha%

"Thank you, we'll see you in a few days!" The chipper receptionist piped at him. Even her bright yellow blouse made him ill - overexposure to optimism. Inuyasha gave her a momentary one toothed smile before walking out of the psychologist's office, bolting down the hall, and shoving an old janitor out of the way of an opening elevator. His bodyguards slipped in right after the prince as the doors began to close, catching their sunglasses as they flew off of their faces from the sudden stop. The one with a high ponytail poked his head through the crack just long enough to say, "Sorry grampa!" before slipping back in and pressing the button for the basement garage.

"God what a bitch." Inuyasha gasped in revulsion.

"Who your majesty, the receptionist?" The bodyguard with short hair asked.

"No, that wretch of a psychologist! Why the HELL didn't anyone tell me she was going to be a woman?"

"We have to have some kind of entertainment given our shitty work schedules." The pony-tailed bodyguard said.

"She's aggressive and so... treating me like a little kid."

"Heh heh, send her to me, I like 'em fiery."

"Shut up Koga." Inuyasha ordered.

"Seriously Koga did you _have_ to flirt with her when we got there?" The shorthaired body guard asked. "It looked like she was going to stab you with a syringe."

"She's a psychologist, Ginta, not a psychiatrist," Koga replied. " She wouldn't use a syringe. I bet she knows hoe to use that sweet, sweet voice of hers to-"

"Koga if you finish that sentence I'm vomiting on you." Inuyasha growled.

"What, a guy can't say he likes a strong woman with a beautiful voice?" Koga asked with a smile.

"How can you stand her, the way she smells…" Inuyasha shot back, blowing a harsh lungful of air out his nose.

"I don't know your majesty, she seemed pretty good for a human." Ginta replied. "And I'll give Koga his due, she's got quite a rack."

"I SWEAR I'M GOING TO KILL YOU BOTH IF YOU DON'T STOP FANTASIZING ABOUT MY PSYCHOLOGIST!"

The elevator was quiet for a few moments, save for the occasional ping of another floor dropped.

"So…" Koga began. "You want her to be your psychologist? What about all the things about her that I like that you don't?"

Inuyasha held his silence. He was seriously confused by this Dr. Higurashi. She listened to him in a different way than all the other doctors had. She attacked him, but it didn't feel like he was really being attacked, and she didn't ask him about how his mother died. She came close, but for some reason she didn't. It made him feel uneasy, but it also quickened his heart to have a challenge like her to talk to, even if all she was was a shrink. And as his mother once said, "All challenges are meant to be risen above."

"Aw, does the puppy dog have a crush?" Koga sneered.

"Say that again, wolf." Inuyasha growled, bearing his claws as the elevator pinged at its stop. "Murder's not that hard to get away with as a prince."

The jaws of Koga and Ginta suddenly seemed wired shut. The two looked at each other and slowly flicked their sunglasses back on.

"Apologies, your majesty…" Koga whispered indignantly. The two stepped out of the elevator into the skeletal, cement garage sparsely peppered with cars. They glanced at each other uneasily before lurching forward and bolting into the dark, their prince behind them, his metallic white hair catching the gleam of one lone light before all trace of their collective presence vanished.

-End chapter 1

(P.s. - yes, his hair did just change color)


End file.
